b16899 said: ls20 said: b16899 said: ....if you know for how long people are going to continue to panic

I gave a general directions, people has to do their own leg works.

For example, buying down or buying up.

Wait SPY to crush to $140 and buy some$130 buy some....

It is funny but every time anybody talks about "buying low", some wisecrack will quip in, "how do you when it is low". While you may never know if you picked up something at its lowest, you have to go with your gut feel. When the recent WMT earnings rumors kicked in, I picked it up for $68.5ish. Was that the day's lowest? Hell no. But it was much lower than what it was a week before that. Dipped just enough for me to like the PE better, div yield better.

And would I buy PG today? Probably not - the chart tells you that it at its "local" high.

Or the alternate is to keep joking about - "when do you know it is low" and never buy or believe that there is no such thing as a low and just put the money in the market when the Dow reaches a new high for the week.

Picked up DE at $89.16. Sold Jan 17 2015 $90 call for $10.36 each. If the stock does not crater, expected yield around 10% per-year (dividend included). 11% downside protection (without including dividend cashflow). If the stock get exercised after a year, would get the benefit of long term capital gains on the call premium since that would alter my cost basis. And if DE raises dividend, I benefit even more.

Note: Interesting read below on mis-pricing of long-term option. The above option is not that long - but still that is along the lines of what I am thinking.

I rather like Mr. Buffet's explanation of their dividend policy. But it would only be applicable to companies that can reinvest the dividends better than you can. For BRK that's a yes. But for something like a regulated utility or a telecom, maybe not.

cooldude9919 said: Got 100 shares of agnc at 31.60 with the drop due to new shares. Seems to always bounce back up after this, so with the dividend comming up next month, seems like a decent entry point?

FWjunkie2 said: cooldude9919 said: Got 100 shares of agnc at 31.60 with the drop due to new shares. Seems to always bounce back up after this, so with the dividend comming up next month, seems like a decent entry point?

Nice call. you were right.Keeps on going today as well! Knock on wood, but hopefully the drop for the dividend isnt too bad, even though it doesnt matter much as i plan on holding for at least a year.

I do wait for pullbacks. Eg. - I won't buy PG now - almost trading at its 52-week high.

While the trend of stock increasing near the dividend date tends to work, it is not a shoo in since the street knows about it too. And I don't like to deal with short term options - commission and spreads make it somewhat non-interesting.

I tend to sell covered calls on stocks with dividends. Goal is around 10 to 12% with dividend + appreciation + call premium. Covered calls tend to somewhat balance the higher price of the stock - i.e. if the stock is rising, the money I will make with covered call will rise too - so I am not so picky about waiting for the stock to hit a super low price. If it meets my criteria of being a nice point away from the high and the 10/12% number, I will go for it. One thing that I have learned with call options on dividend paying stocks is that typically the street will exercise the call before the last dividend if the stock has gone up enough - so that needs to be factored in the expected gain calculation - i.e. less earnings from dividend but shorter investment period].

Have been doing well with a whole range of stocks with buy on pullback and covered call. CAT, DE, YUM, CCL, AXP, M, KSS, GIS, TM, BA, NOC, BMY, BHP.... BHP and YUM have been interesting. BHP took a hit after I bought it but covered call saved my bacon. Closed the call for very small premium and then sold another call later when the stock recovered. YUM really hit a home run but then the Chinese bad chicken caught up with it - but at no point, I lost any money on it and I think I am still on track to make the money that I anticipate making on it (unless bad chicken turns into bad chicken II). [Note to newbie's: Don't use my past list to make as indicative of good trades - they were good trades when I made them - but I probably would not buy any of them right now]. TM was interesting too - really took off. Sold the stock and bought a slightly deeper in the money option to create a spread. This way, got most of my 10% gain in a couple of months but I free up the capital for new investments. No more dividend to be had but letting the option premium time decay.

Most recent purchases: TWC, LMT, LTD, sold DRI Jan 2014 $45 put for $4.90. Bought COP/XOM without offsetting covered calls - hoping to sell calls later. Bought WMT without offsetting call when memo about sales was leaked a few days ago and it took a nice dip. WMT doesn't have a high dividend but expecting appreciation. Holding MCD without covered calls - again expecting appreciation as the bad chicken memory fades during the year.

Hitting home runs on few of my stuff. Everything doing well with the market - but YUM afterhours today - Wow! MCD has been on fire lately, DRI has gained a bunch.

Any feeling positive or negative on Accenture, ACN? Decent yield, solid dividend growth, and low payout ratio. After my own personal experience with the company, I was considering picking them up because I love the business model.

Happily keeping P&G. Had a good quarter; weak guidance will be a good thing in a couple months when they don't have to meet high expectations. They just raised dividend 7%. Company becoming leaner and efficient.

SaulHudson said: Any feeling positive or negative on Accenture, ACN? Decent yield, solid dividend growth, and low payout ratio. After my own personal experience with the company, I was considering picking them up because I love the business model.

I like ACN but what is holding me back is the ruthless competition with the Indian outsourcers.

You really only need about 20 stocks to get to the point where your basket is diversified enough to behave more like an index fund. You shouldn't try to "beat the market" but hand picking can give you exctly the kind of investment (risk, return, dividend yield) you want. Better yet expenses will be VERY low compared to an actively managed mutual fund and if you hold your stocks you can avoid realizing cap gains (another problem with active funds).

I get 4% and use the following criteria:1. Large cap industry leader. 2. Payout ratio no more than 60% - this is the percent of profits that goes to dividends and speaks to sustainability3. Solid revenues and profitability over time.4. 3% div yield+

I found there are really a couple of flavors that get through this screen. Established "cash cow" businesses like mcdonalds, clorox, colgate, WalMart, GE...and commodity related companies like conoco phillips that have a high payout but more price volatility. I prefer the former.

I bought OXY at $79.88 just a few weeks ago and now already over $86. I was not expecting this run up and now thinking of just selling for gain.But then I read so many entries about selling covered calls at higher strike price to collect some premiums and hang on to stock for dividends.

Any advice on either selling for gain now (short term gain), versus selling the covered calls and hang on?

I have a similar situation with BP which has a >5% gain in just a few weeks.

I'm fearing that "Sell in May" phenom.

Anyone merely buy the DVY ETF to simplify all this stock selection effort?

dunnrobert said: You really only need about 20 stocks to get to the point where your basket is diversified enough to behave more like an index fund. You shouldn't try to "beat the market" but hand picking can give you exctly the kind of investment (risk, return, dividend yield) you want. Better yet expenses will be VERY low compared to an actively managed mutual fund and if you hold your stocks you can avoid realizing cap gains (another problem with active funds).

I get 4% and use the following criteria:1. Large cap industry leader. 2. Payout ratio no more than 60% - this is the percent of profits that goes to dividends and speaks to sustainability3. Solid revenues and profitability over time.4. 3% div yield+

I found there are really a couple of flavors that get through this screen. Established "cash cow" businesses like mcdonalds, clorox, colgate, WalMart, GE...and commodity related companies like conoco phillips that have a high payout but more price volatility. I prefer the former.

I love Clorox, Colgate, WalMart, and COP. MCD was on my watch list for the longest time. I almost bought it on a dip a few months ago, but I just can't shake the feeling that junk food and soda gets more bad publicity everyday. At some point, the world has to catch on that this stuff is bad for you... I think???

I like Intel closer to 20. Silvermont (new mobile platform) looks to be a strong play into mobile. Haswell will make substantial gains in battery life which will hopefully bring ultrabook sales up a bit. Then there is always a potential foundry deal with AAPL.

DaveTheStud said: I think I may jump on FTE. 14% div yield and trading real low, can't see it going below $10 so as long as it does not cut the dividend then it has to be worth a bite. Anyone else invested in this?

Did you look at the 5 year chart for this one ? 2011 dividend $1.93 (where average price $15-20), 2012 dividend $1.75 (where average price $11-15). Seems like a very downward trend and losing 30% a year. What reason do you have to think it's stabilizing now ?

I see that FTE is subject to ADR pass-through fees. I wasn't able to figure out how much this fee is. This fee is only deductable as an investment expense, and that deduction is useless unless it exceeds 2% of your income.

Mining stocks are big laggards because of the global economic mess. But surprisingly FCX, JOY, NEM had decent earnings and the prices of their stocks are no longer falling. They pay 3-4% dividends too.

I'm long FCX, VALE, and will buy JOY on pullback soon.

My OXY is now over $90/sh from by purchase of about $79.50. New CEO and breakup value are catalysts I'm waiting for to synergize!

My MTG and RDN are block busting. Government's FHA is trying to shift mortgage insuring business away from them and toward private sector... and it is working!!

check out www.optionsforcash.com blog. LINK I don't subscribe to any of their paid services. Some FREE stuff on their site are helpful tools.

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